Gaining IEng or CEng status is just as straightforward for engineers who are teachers or researchers in HE as it is for an engineer working in industry.  Evidence of competence can be provided in many ways, such as course development, involvement in research, managing research projects, an industrial placement, working independently on consultancy or voluntary engineering work.

We are pleased to announce that the Institution of Diesel and Gas Turbine Engineers (IDGTE) has been granted a licence by the Engineering Council to offer EngTech registration to its members with relevant competency.  IDGTE is now one of 36 licensed institutions deemed to have sufficient experience, procedures and resources to assess the competence and commitment of candidates for registration and to monitor those registrants' continuing professional development and conduct.

Proud to support a rapidly progressive and changing sector of industry, the IDGTE is taking an innovative approach in working with companies to approve their training and personal development programmes, in order to make the route to EngTech registration a part of their staff grading scheme.

Peter Tottman, Director General for IDGTE says, "We are delighted to be able to offer EngTech registration as part of our membership. IDGTE aspires to support an increase in the registration of Engineering Technicians within our industry sector and we very much look forward to working with our partners to further our commitment to professional registration".

Chief Executive Officer of the Engineering Council, Andrew Ramsay, adds "It is with great pleasure that we've granted an EngTech licence to IDGTE. We fully support its approach to working with partner companies to ensure that EngTech becomes integral to their training and development programmes. We look forward to welcoming their members to the national register in due course."

The annual Engineering Council Professional Affiliates Seminar was held at Weston House in May, attended by staff and members from 13 of the current affiliates. 

As well as providing an ideal networking opportunity, discussion topics included new marketing initiatives, the government's establishment of a new Technician Council, an update on key international issues and the simplification of the registration process for affiliates.

Engineering Council Professional Affiliates are engineering institutions closely associated with, but not licensed by, the Engineering Council.  They are an influential group, each of which has furthered the knowledge and understanding of a particular area or aspect of engineering and technology.

The benefits of affiliation, for which they pay an annual fee, are two-fold:  access to information for staff and members via the Engineering Council Extranet, networks and an opportunity to contribute to industry developments; and the opportunity to offer professional registration for their members through an agreement with an existing licensed body.  Several Professional Affiliates have themselves progressed to licensed status.

There are currently 18 Professional Affiliates and the Engineering Council has a promotional campaign under way in order to significantly increase the number of institutions enjoying the scheme's membership benefits.

"Engineering the future of the UK - a vision for the future of UK engineering" was published in March by Engineering the Future, a collective body made up of the Engineering Council, EngineeringUK, the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Chemical Engineers, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Institute of Physics, and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Engineering the future was established following the House of Commons Select Committee Report 'Engineering: turning ideas into reality.'  The Select Committee had been critical of the apparent failure of the profession to make a collective response to national issues.  During the enquiry the PEIs agreed the Royal Academy should lead and co-ordinate future national initiatives.  The manifesto was its first major task, but further initiatives are in train.

The manifesto was a comprehensive call for action to ensure that engineering makes the maximum contribution to solving Britain's biggest challenges: the economy, the environment, education, infrastructure and public services.

Highlighting five key policy priorities for government, it followed a joint letter from the Presidents of the professional bodies urging the political parties to grasp the fact that engineering holds the key to creating a new, broader economic base.

In recent years there has been a large increase in the uptake of A Level Further Mathematics.  This has obvious advantages for students going on to degrees in engineering. It is not just that they know more mathematics but that they are much more fluent in it and are more confident.

There are also very considerable benefits to students from taking Further Mathematics at AS level. They are introduced to important topics such as complex numbers and matrices, which are not included in A level Mathematics, and they improve their algebraic and general mathematical fluency.

The Engineering Council has worked with the Further Mathematics Support Programme (FMSP) over a number of years to help the FMSP develop a network of support for Further Mathematics students and their teachers in schools and colleges.  During this time the number of Further Mathematics A level students has risen dramatically from around 5,000 in 2003 to over 10,000 today.  The figures for AS level are even more encouraging, over 13,000 in 2009.

The FMSP enables universal access to Further Mathematics tuition, even when the students' own schools and colleges are unable to offer it.  This means that universities can safely encourage prospective undergraduates to take Further Mathematics without the concern that some students do not have the opportunity to take it.

The Engineering Council's bi-annual seminar on 'Professional Mobility and International Recognition of Qualifications' was held on 24 May at the IMarEST headquarters in London. 

Throughout the day much useful information was disseminated by an impressive array of speakers, leading to the conclusion that the increasing interchange between countries both within Europe and with the rest of the world emphasised the need for the UK to maintain high standards of education and of professional registration in order to remain competitive.

To set the scene for an audience drawn mainly from engineering institutions and the regulatory bodies of other professions, Engineering Council Chairman, Professor Kel Fidler presented the reasons why the Engineering Council is involved in international activities: 25% of its registrants live overseas, engineering services generate a UK trade surplus of over £2b per annum, international students comprise 30% of all engineering students in UK universities and as a regulatory body the Engineering Council has obligations under mobility legislation.

Keynote speaker Malcolm Harbour MEP, chairman of the European Parliament's Internal Market and Consumer Affairs Committee, observed that the engineering profession had a fundamental role in the main issues affecting the world: climate change and sustainability. This provided a good opportunity to raise the profile of engineers with the public and with decision makers.

Other morning session speakers, from European network associations representing professional bodies (CEPLIS), academic accreditation agencies (ENAEE) and the engineering profession (FEANI), took up the theme introduced by Malcolm Harbour. The talks were coloured by the effects of legislation and other European actions, and the need for professional bodies to present concerted initiatives to the European institutions.

In the afternoon attention focussed on the rest of the world, in particular the activities of the International Engineering Alliance (IEA). The speakers also examined the relationship between the IEA educational benchmarks statements and those adopted in Europe, and the issues which were slowing progress towards multilateral mutual recognition of professional registration.  NARIC speakers explored the interaction of the engineering profession equivalence assessment systems with those of NARIC - especially in relation to the points based UK immigration system.

In our August 2009 issue we talked about a three year project the Engineering Council is involved in, to help Higher Education institutions to incorporate global issues into the teaching of engineering (Incorporating Global Issues into Engineering education).

One of our partners in the project, the Engineering Subject Centre, is responsible for the organisation of events run by the project. As such it will be running an holistic programme of workshops for engineering academics, related to the framework and linking to the requirements for the accreditation of degrees.  These will take place during the academic year 2010 - 2011 in locations across the UK.

The interactive workshops will be thematically unique but will have a common thread of developing a negotiated understanding of the global dimension of engineering education.  Provisional topics include:

• Diversity and Rights in Engineering Practice
• Engineers Working with Conflict
• Engineering and Social Justice
• Values and Ethics in Engineering
• Interdependence and Global Professionalism in Engineering
• Engineering and Sustainable Development

The resources from the project will become available from summer 2010 through a dedicated web portal, including:

• Teaching resources to use with students (including case studies)
• Guides for academics and case studies that demonstrate teaching globalisation in the engineering curriculum
• Reports and briefing papers
• Research papers
• Links to relevant websites
• Experts/consultants to help with curriculum development

The Higher Education Better Regulation Group (HEBRG) is to be officially launched on June 24 in London.  The successor body to the Higher Education Regulation Review Group (HERRG), its primary purpose is to build on the work of HERRG in order to address changing public and political attitudes towards regulation and accountability. 

The Engineering Council's Chairman, Kel Fidler will be speaking at the launch event, along with Nicola Dandridge, Chief Executive of Universities UK and Sir Graeme Catto, Chairman of HEBRG. The Engineering Council has been invited to participate because the final report from HERRG cited the engineering profession's approach to degree accreditation as an exemplar for other professions to follow.

The new group brings together a range of higher education organisations to raise the profile of better regulation, increase commitment to the principles of good regulation and improve communication and understanding between HEIs, regulators and sponsors.  Its work includes:

• mapping the emerging accountability and regulatory framework for higher education
• revising and updating the Higher Education Concordat on quality assurance arrangements and data collection
• acting as a source of support to the HE sector by highlighting effective accountability and governance to sponsors and regulators
• acting as a source of support to regulators by explaining the interests and concerns of regulators to providers of higher education.

HEBRG is sponsored by the HE sector representative bodies (Universities UK, GuildHE, Universities Scotland, Higher Education Wales) and funding bodies (Higher Education Funding Council for England, Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, Scottish Funding Council).

EngineeringUK has announced the appointment of Dr Paul Golby as its new Chairman, with effect from 1 September 2010.  Dr Golby succeeds Sir Anthony Cleaver who comes to the end of his three year tenure.

This year 22,545 people attended the Big Bang: UK Young Scientists' and Engineers' Fair in Manchester; representing more than three times as many as the 6,500 who attended the inaugural Fair in 2009.

The Fair featured the prestigious National Science & Engineering Competition, and is thought to be the largest single celebration of science and engineering aimed exclusively at children and young people.  Activities included welding with chocolate, exploring the human genome, building a supersmart lego robot and challenging the Wigan Warriors to produce enough green energy to cook their own breakfasts.

The IMechE has published an authoritative report on research into the age at which young people are most likely to be interested in STEM careers, and able to take advantage of advice. 

The Social Mobility Foundation is looking for assistance with its internship programme this summer.  The charity works with high-achieving sixth form students from low income backgrounds.  It provides such students with a holistic programme called the Aspiring Professionals Programme (APP), which includes internships, mentoring and a range of workshops to support students in developing their soft skills, maximising their university applications and making the most of their time at university.

They currently have 20 talented young people interested in careers in Engineering and are looking for companies that would be interested in providing internships to their students, in London, Birmingham, Leeds or Manchester.  Their specific interest areas are listed in the table below:

Internships take place in July and August for an average of one to three weeks. The content is left up to each employer, but the Foundation does ask that there is a structure which allows the student(s) to get a real insight into their chosen profession. Whilst they do not ask for students to be paid, they do ask all employers to reimburse the local travel costs of the student(s) hosted, if possible.

The Social Mobility Foundation provided 195 internships in 2008, and 316 in 2009 at more than 150 employers, including Accenture, Centrica, EDF Energy, Foster & Partners and the offices of the Rt. Hon. Alan Milburn MP and the Rt. Hon. David Cameron MP, as well as a number of large hospitals.

Over 80% of respondents to last year's employer evaluation form said the student(s) they hosted were of the calibre they would employ after university. In the last three years, 53% of their Internship cohort has gone onto Russell Group universities, including Cambridge, Oxford, Nottingham, Imperial and UCL.

The Energy Institute (EI) is now accepting entries for the EI Awards 2010. Now in its 11th year, the EI Awards brings industry kudos to the winners and for those who are shortlisted it offers the perfect opportunity to showcase their work to the wider energy community. Winners will be announced at a high profile ceremony in November in London.  The awards are free to enter, with categories including:

Communication
Community Initiative (sponsored by Nexen)
Energy Excellence
Environment
Innovation (sponsored by Amec)
Individual Achievement (sponsored by Expert Alumni)
Safety (sponsored by Shell)
Technology

EI is keen to encourage a wide and varied selection of entries so if you have any customers, colleagues, or friends who would be interested in submitting an entry please let them know about the awards.

Eighteen year-old James Popper, who is a student at Marlborough College, Wiltshire scooped a host of major prizes in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) which took place in San Jose, California from 9-14 May. 

His remarkable achievements in a field of the best 1600 science and engineering students from around the world included:

• Intel ISEF Best of Category award for Electrical and Mechanical Engineering
• An invitation to the prestigious 'Stockholm International Youth Science Seminar'
• The US Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Foundation Presidents' Scholarship
• First place in the US Government Patent and Trademark Office Society award
• Winner of a United Technologies Corporation Prize

James' project, 'CookerSmart' detects saucepan fires on domestic cookers without setting off any 'false alarms'.